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The energy input for animal products is higher across the board than for plant products http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/webber-more-efficient-foods-le

The energy input for animal products is higher across the board than for plant products http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/webber-more-efficient-foods-less-waste/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/webber-more-effici... . Even if you grow the chickens better way, you still need to grow the feed, so you are back to the original problem. If the chicken feed can be grown in a good way, then so can the peas probably. So -- just moving from eggs to a plant based substitute, changing nothing else about the agricultural process, would reduce any negative consequences of farming.

codingdave 12y ago
We feed our chickens our kitchen scraps and leftovers. We also house them under our apple trees so they can catch any windfall and eat any bugs or rodents that arrive. We move the straw out of the rabbit runs and put it into a container in the chicken run, so the chickens also pick the seeds and bugs out of there, too, and start the composting process so all that material can get recycled. They also fertilize our apple trees with their waste, and the compost that comes out of this process is used in our gardens. So the chickens pretty much take care of themselves... lets talk the next step up - the rabbits. They feed on the grass and other plants that grow in our fields, as we move their mobile runs around the property. We also provide them with straw and alfalfa that has been locally grown. (We do buy that from one of our neighbors.) So yes, we do feed our animals - but a lot less than one might think, and most of it comes from our own land. We take advantage of materials that would otherwise be waste, and use them to have a more sustainable operation. It will always be true that the same amount of resources could produce more plants (if your gardens grow perfectly)... that math is inarguable. But if you build a full ecosystem around your animals, you can do fairly well.
- will_hughes 12y ago
  How much land are you using to produce food for how many people?

codingdave 12y ago

We feed our chickens our kitchen scraps and leftovers. We also house them under our apple trees so they can catch any windfall and eat any bugs or rodents that arrive. We move the straw out of the rabbit runs and put it into a container in the chicken run, so the chickens also pick the seeds and bugs out of there, too, and start the composting process so all that material can get recycled. They also fertilize our apple trees with their waste, and the compost that comes out of this process is used in our gardens. So the chickens pretty much take care of themselves... lets talk the next step up - the rabbits. They feed on the grass and other plants that grow in our fields, as we move their mobile runs around the property. We also provide them with straw and alfalfa that has been locally grown. (We do buy that from one of our neighbors.) So yes, we do feed our animals - but a lot less than one might think, and most of it comes from our own land. We take advantage of materials that would otherwise be waste, and use them to have a more sustainable operation. It will always be true that the same amount of resources could produce more plants (if your gardens grow perfectly)... that math is inarguable. But if you build a full ecosystem around your animals, you can do fairly well.

will_hughes 12y ago
How much land are you using to produce food for how many people?